The grand and solemn voice and the magical city made the dwarves fall into a deep shock. What they saw and heard was the first time in their lives. Even if they had imagined, they had never imagined such a scene.
The tall buildings that were dozens of meters tall made them feel smaller and smaller. The lights that looked like stars made the city seem vast and vast. There were all kinds of magical things that were far more delicate and complicated than the steam civilization.
Faced with such a city and all the dreamy things, Harold and the other dwarves felt that they were standing in the boundless starry sky, and they were humbled and insignificant.
It was the same awe they had for the splendid steam civilization when they first heard about it.
This was the power of the civilization.
After being stunned for a long time, the Chief Elder finally came back to himself. His heart trembling, he kneeled on the ground and saluted despite the hot sand.
"The great God of Steam, your kingdom is the residence of the gods. Your kingdom is the pinnacle of steam."
Reminded by the Chief Elder's prayer, Harold and the other dwarves knelt down devoutly in front of the city that seemed to be the incarnation of the God's Kingdom.
"Your grace is as vast as the ocean. Your majesty is as heavy as the mountain."
The sacred and solemn voice echoed again.
"Those who are not of the same faith shall not reveal my name to others."
The Chief Elder was stunned for a moment and then quickly responded with Myrna and the other dwarves. "Those who are not of the same faith shall not reveal my holy name to others."
The voice that seemed to come from the sky continued.
"Those who betray me shall be swallowed by the steam."
The dwarves who had been prepared followed and replied, "Those who betray the Lord shall be swallowed by the steam."
The voice became ethereal and ethereal.
"As my servants, as my family, you shall never be slaves to others again."
The dwarves replied at the same time, "We will never blaspheme your glory!"
After a few questions and answers, the voice in the sky gradually disappeared. Suddenly, Harold saw that the city in front of him expanded and turned into countless bubbles that flowed towards them.
In the bubbles, the strange vehicle made of steel became bigger and bigger and more and more transparent, revealing the complicated and delicate structure inside. The core machine made of pistons and bearings that were different from the steam engine, as well as all kinds of mysterious patterns.
In the "bubble", the iron bird was also enlarged and transparent, exposing the neat rows of seats inside as well as the precise machines and pipelines that were covered by the iron.
In the "bubble", the general structure of many buildings, such as skyscrapers, factories, chimneys, roads, bridges, and so on, gradually appeared.
…
Harold, Quiggins, and the other dwarves all felt that they were about to explode. Everything was too complicated to be understood. They couldn't understand it at all!
The bubbles turned into balls of light and crashed into their arms. Everything in front of them rippled like water and began to shatter.
"This is what you want. Everything else will have to be found with strength, courage, perseverance, and pointlessness." The grand and vast voice seemed to ring in the ears of every dwarf.
The Great Elder did not forget to lead the dwarves in prayer.
"Honoring your holy name, practicing your Dao, we will definitely establish your kingdom on the earth!"
The desert was completely shattered. Harold and the others felt that the world was spinning and they fell into a deep sleep.
After an unknown period of time, they slowly woke up. When they opened their eyes, they found themselves in a familiar yet strange underground cave.
"What happened?" The Great Elder looked at the weird altar in front of him in confusion.
In a daze, Harold looked at the thick book that appeared out of nowhere in his hands.
He had just learned the dwarven language from the Great Elder for two years. It was difficult for him to recognize the complicated words on the cover.
'Elementary Mechanical Forging'.
"The God … The God of Steam has really arrived!" Harold blurted out in excitement.
The other dwarves also noticed the book in their hands. They were startled by Harold's uncontrolled volume. Then, they burst into tears, crying for the first light of hope in their dark and hopeless lives.
At this moment, their "memories" all came back to them.
They and the other dwarven rebels accidentally found this cave where the steam civilization worshiped the gods. So, they used it as a hiding place and resumed worshiping the gods. Today, however, Harold accidentally let the vampires Tess and Galata find him, and many of his compatriots were killed by them.
When they were in desperation, the altar suddenly lit up, and the gods arrived and purified Tess and the other vampires instantly.
Then, the "god" guided them into an underground palace, which was engraved with murals of dwarves. When they pushed open the door of the palace, they saw a desert of yellow sand.
After a long and arduous journey, they finally saw the unimaginably amazing city in the oasis deep in the desert — Atlantis, the paradise of the God of Steam!
Augustus, who felt that his memory was very messy, sighed, "The underground palace, the murals, the desert, the oasis, and Atlantis are all images that the great God of Steam wants our souls to see. They are not real things."
In such a chaotic situation, most people who knew magic would suspect that their memory had been tampered with. However, after experiencing the "miracle" and opening up their minds, they believed that it was natural.
Sometimes, whether a kind of illusion spell worked or not depended on whether the caster knew how to use it.
As Atlant, the Eye of Curse, wrote in one of his papers, "As long as you find the right loophole in the mind, you can make people have false memories even without illusions!"
"No, Great Elder, those are real things, but they exist in the Paradise of Steam!" Quiggins, the leader of the dwarf rebellion, objected loudly. "One day, we will let the Lord's Way walk on the ground!"
Recalling 'Atlantis', Harold was immediately dumbfounded. "I've always thought that the steam giant city that boasted numerous mechanical products was the grandest and most astounding city. I didn't expect that there would be such an unimaginable city of miracles like Atlantis!"
"Every piece of machinery and every detail in it is so magical. It's as if the invention of steam has been developed to the extreme. No, it has completely surpassed the steam civilization," a dwarf said as if he had gone crazy.
If it were any other time, the other dwarves who worshipped the ancient steam civilization would have mocked him, cursed him, and even beat him up mercilessly. But now, almost all the dwarves nodded in agreement, not only because it was the paradise of the God of Steam, but also because they had seen everything with their own eyes.
A dreamy city!
Harold became excited and clenched his fists. "Atlantis, Atlantis, my goal is to build an Atlantis on the ground. I want it to be half as magical as it is. No, one-third of it will be enough!"
"I will never forget the brilliant lights and the 'galaxy'," said Myrna in a dreamy voice. "It's a pity that I didn't see the structure of the 'giant metal arrow'."
"Yes, it's a pity …" All the dwarves were very disappointed. They both yearned for and feared the weapon that seemed to be created by the gods to destroy the world. At that moment, a new sun seemed to have been born!
"Also, my memory of the other structures is very vague …" Harold was a bit upset, but he soon cheered up. "We have to lay the foundation first!"
He raised the book in his hand and saw a piece of parchment in the book.
He took out the parchment and found that it was a contract, a contract that stipulated everything in the dream.
"The great God of Steam has given us an oracle to follow the principle of 'equivalent exchange', which is an important creed of the Kingdom of Steam and Machinery." The elder sensed the hint of the god and said excitedly. Then he signed the contract without any hesitation.
Harold and the other dwarves had no doubts about the God of Steam who had saved them and owned the miracle city, Atlantis. They signed the contract with the elder. For them, the most important thing was the last clause of the contract: "In the near future, the devout dwarves will be reborn and leave the Night Highland, away from the vampires' enslavement."
After a flash of light, the contract came into effect. Lucien, who was invisible outside the cave, nodded slightly and turned around to leave.
After the illusion ended, it took him a lot of effort to move them to the underground cave found by the Eye of Secrets without alarming anyone. Then he mixed up the order of their memories and made up some fake memories to avoid the problem that he was not capable enough to make up real memories.
However, if they believed in the fake memories, it would be hard for them to tell the truth after some time!
The desert and Atlantis, on the other hand, were simulated by 'Mirage', the fifth-circle illusion spell that Lucien cast with Alferris' blood. The blueprints were based on some of the major cities on Earth. As for the vague details such as the mechanical structure, many magic symbols were mixed in. Even if the legendary sorcerers discovered it later, they would at most think that it was a product of magic alchemy that had been popularized.
After leaving the underground cave, Lucien's face became more and more serious. According to the dwarves, the two dead vampires were the wife and steward of Vlad, the lord of this area. The female vampire was also the Count's favorite bride.
"The disappearance of ordinary vampires is not a big deal, but the disappearance of these two vampires will definitely infuriate Vlad. With the connection between his descendants, his familiarity with the territory, and his keen senses as a high-rank vampire, he will definitely be able to discover the location of the underground palace and the spatial node."
"I have to take care of this."
Lucien walked towards the castle where Vlad Count lived.
… …
The next day, when the constellation changed, the dwarves began to work again under the whips of the other supervisors.
The supervisors did not mind that the wife and the steward did not come back last night. The deputy steward had already told them that they had found the traces of the dwarves' resistance army and were on their way. It was normal for them to spend two or three days on something like this.
In the basement of the gloomy castle, there was a blood-red coffin surrounded by layers of dark magic circles. From time to time, dense black smoke would come out from the coffin.
This was the place where Vlad Count slept and healed himself. It was the core of the castle.
Every time Vlad fell asleep, he would fully activate the magic circles and traps around the basement in case his enemies sneaked in and killed him.
According to Vlad's boast, it took him thousands of years to set up the core of the castle. Even if a vampire marquis or a duke came here, it would be impossible for him to break the magic circles without alerting him. If someone tried to break in by force, it would take at least a duke to break in after a long time.
Therefore, compared to the core of the castle, the core of the castle's defense circle was not powerful enough.
Mrs. Tess, Galata, and the other two vampire brides had the means to contact Vlad Count in the basement.
It seemed that the best way to assassinate Vlad Count was to fabricate the information and trick him into coming out with the help of the two vampire brides.
However, if he couldn't kill them quickly or trap them and slowly kill them, the life-saving and escaping abilities of high-ranking Vampires were extremely shocking. When the time came, everything would be exposed.
Furthermore, an ancient Vampire Count who had participated in the War of Dawn and survived was definitely not a fool who would be easily deceived. The slightest loophole would be easily seen through and used against him.
This was an operation that could not be failed.
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